1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to seals and to the installation of seals onto a shaft.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the art of sealing the spline area of truck propeller shafts, prior art designs have used a cork or felt split gasket compressed into a screw-on cap. This prior art technique is expensive, creates an assembly problem, and is ineffective in excluding contaminants. Elastomeric seals have not been used previously in this application because the seal must first pass over a spline which is approximately 0.4 inch larger in diameter than the surface upon which the sealing lip rides. The other end of such a shaft has a yoke with an O.D. larger than that of the splined portion of the shaft, as will be understood by those skilled in the art. Other seal applications such as the power take-off on agricultural equipment present similar problems.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome such problems in the prior art and to provide relatively inexpensive, easy to install seals which positively exclude contaminants.